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Old Russian Sombo Video

Below I’ve embedded an old Sombo video that may be of interest. I’m sure most of you know that Sombo is a Russian weaponless martial art, combat sport and self-defence method that was formulated in the 1920s and draws its influence from indigenous fighting systems, judo, karate, boxing, jujutsu, freestyle wresting, and others. I really enjoy such old clips and comparing the methods used by various arts at various points of history. I hope you enjoy it too.

Really good to see old footage...I discovered a book copy right.. 1st in1962 with pictures in "The secret art of Chinese leg manoveres" by LEE Ying-arng. It too refers to Tribal wrestling in Mongolia Chinese name "go-ti" or [horn gore]. It goes on to say the art was based on instinctive defence manoveres. It goes on to say in 2600BC at the battle of TULUK general Hsien-yuan Wangti using these skills defeated the army of Chi-yu, not on his own I assume. His victory allowed him to turn it into a sport where the contestants wore horned helmets and could gouge each other it says to the death. This horned competition is now relegated to a folk dance in Shangshi and Honan provinces of the once Manchuria. The author says this style travelled to japan [618] to take the form of Sumo.True or not?

The Mongols took this wrestling to Europe to become Grecian wrestling. True or not?

The book has many names and dates but I keep an open mind and just assume as man migrated so would his defence and attack skills travel with him and he would pick up new ones in order to survive harsh times.

Information from the past gives us a litmus test of how far we have developed or not as the case may be..keep up the excellent research Iain please as I love learning it keeps the "MASTER" syndrome away from the door

1.50 into the video the two guys in dressing gowns took part in what looked like Cumberland wrestling.

I can certainly see the similarities there! All the Cumbrians of my dad's generation did Cumberland wrestling at school, but it's not as widely practised now. In part, that may be because the outfit is somewhat more bizarre than a gi (see picture)! My brother and I would wrestle with my dad on family trips to the beach etc. I can’t recall winning any … but I’d like to think I could now ;-)

The grip taken to begin with also looks a lot like what we described as being used in the Tegumi wrestling bouts of Okinawa. There would seem to be a lot of similarities between many indigenous wrestling styles.

Nowadays, most Cumberland wrestling is done at agricultural shows and other community gatherings where everyone can get involved. It’s also not uncommon for the local Judoka to compete too.

It’s an ancient tradition in this neck of the woods and is commonly thought to have been brought here by the Viking settlers. I’ve put a little video below that explains it all so people can compare it with the Sombo and other indigenous wrestling styles.